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Friday, January 9, 2015

PERSON OF INTEREST: AN SF HIT CLOSE TO HOME

One of POI's major, um assets, Mr. Reese

The best science fiction on television right
now is not even advertised as SF.Thought-provoking questions of what constitutes sentience, the dangers of
artificial super-intelligence and applying human morality to those ASI’s are
hiding in plain sight in what at first glance seems to be a glorified crime
thriller:PERSON OF INTEREST (CBS,
Tuesdays @ 9:00 p.m. EST).

The show, now in its fourth season, started
simply enough, with just a hint of the depth it would develop later on.The premise gives us a wounded cyber-genius, Harold
Finch (LOST’s Michael Emerson), the inventor of a vastly sophisticated
surveillance computer tasked with monitoring communications for terrorist
activity for the government.Finch’s
Machine, however, is smarter than even he knows, and is capable of doing much
more than the government requires.It
can identify all kinds of people at risk—either as victims or perpetrators of
crimes—before those crimes occur, the persons of interest of the title.

Finch recruits another lost soul to help him
prevent those crimes: John Reese (Jim Caviezel), a former CIA operative now
living on the street, trying to forget his previous life.Saving the “numbers” generated by The Machine
provides a form of redemption for Reese.

Over the course of the show’s four seasons,
Finch and Reese have recruited others to the team—Fusco (Kevin Chapman), a
dumpy New York police detective; Shaw (Sarah Shahi), a former
operative-for-hire with more stealth skills than social skills.They have formed temporary alliances with
undercover bosses and former enemies. They have even found help in the most
unlikely of places—from the NYPD detective determined to bring Reese in
throughout the first two seasons, Detective Carter (Taraji P. Henson).At the end of Carter’s dramatic arc, Reese
and Carter had just admitted their love to each other when Carter was killed in
a bloody battle with corrupt cops from her own department.It was a disappointing, but poignant, end to
a promising science fiction suspense romance.

All along the show’s producers (who include
J.J. Abrams and the crew at Bad Robot) have subtly turned up the heat on the
essential questions inherent in the premise of the show. Last season, the
writers introduced a new foil for The Machine, a second, perhaps more powerful
artificial super-intelligence called Samaritan. Samaritan is clearly in the
hands of the bad guys and intended for world domination. Now, midway through
the fourth season, all of the issues raised by the show’s concept have come to
a boil.

Can we really say The Machine is good
(because Finch programmed in certain failsafes) and Samaritan is evil (because
its creators did not)?Finch himself,
who has always been leery of his own creation, argues that humans cannot expect
machines to abide by human moral codes for the simple fact that they are machines.Former enemy Root, who is intimately
connected to The Machine (who no longer “talks” to Finch), has more faith.

As the two ASIs get ready to rumble, mere
humans will inevitably be caught in the middle.Samaritan, speaking with Root through his “human agent”, a precocious ten-year-old
boy, has already promised to destroy The Machine’s human agents (after having
tried to kill them multiple times).Given Samaritan’s willingness to unleash wanton chaos by scrambling
traffic signals, subway travel, communications and financial dealings, a lot
more than just a handful of dedicated agents will be affected by this battle of
the Titans.

This is great stuff—taut, well-written and
well-acted.The questions it raises need
immediate answers, as our cyber-technology rapidly outstrips our ability to
comprehend and control it.PERSON OF
INTEREST is science fiction that demonstrates you don’t always have to reach
far into space to expand your horizons.

PING PONG

Here’s wishing my blog partners Laurie,
Sharon and Pippa a happy and productive 2015, with new books, great reviews and
multiple awards!And to all of our
readers, I wish you wonderful new writers to discover, new films to see and
much SFR joy in the New Year!

I LOVE this show. I was very disappointed when they killed off Carter but Shaw is so interesting as is Root. Wounded characters are so interesting. I started watching because of J.J. Abrams (Star Trek reboot) and writer Jonathan Nolan (Dark Knight, Dark Knight Rises). I stayed because I got hooked on the series. Very believable premise. Big Brother is watching?

Yes, Diane, Carter's death was a blow, both because it meant the end of a great romance arc, but also, of course, because of the loss of the wonderful Taraji P. Henson. (Fortunately we can catch her on EMPIRE now, a totally different kind of show, but . . .) I do love Shaw, though. And Bear is adorable.

Jackie, glad I reminded you! Starting over at the beginning would be so much fun--if I had time, I'd do it myself!

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Hosted by 5 Science Fiction Romance authors with 8 RWA Golden Heart finals and a RITA final between them. We aim to entertain with spirited commentary on the past, present, and future of SFR, hot topics, and our take on Science Fiction and SFR books, television, movies and culture.

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This blog is named in honor of the seedy tavern on the planet Dartis in Inherit the Stars where Laurie's MC Sair originally began his journey--before her critiquers compelled her to trash the Star Wars cantina opening. [See post entitled: From Whence Came the Nameclick to see the excerpt.]

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